John Mulaney is my favorite comedian. He is best known for his three close to perfect Netflix stand up specials, Kid Gorgeous (2018), Comeback Kid (2015), and New In Town (2012). Before these, John worked as a writer on Saturday Night Live from 2009 – 2012, where he worked with my other comedy favorites, Bill Hador and Fred Armenson. In between his specials, him and Nick Kroll have worked together on Broadway with their comedy play Oh Hello and the Netflix hit, Big Mouth where he voices Andrew.
Let’s start at SNL for why I love John Mulany. He wrote during my favorite era ,the middle 2000s. Where he also created, in my opinion, the best Weekend Update character, Stefon. He then went on to make three stand up comedy specials, two that are Netflix originals. His comedy is incredibly smart and deadpan – that it is kind of hard to explain, but trust me. My favorite part of his specials are when he talks about his childhood. No one from his dad, the catholic church, bill clinton, and the child homicide detective that used to present the stranger danger assembly to him is safe from his sarcastic comments. The way he tells a story feels like a friend perfectly recounting the best parts of their history.
That kind of connection leads to a tradition freshman year. A little context is that my first year of college was tough as tough as it can be dealing with anxiety, homesickness, and all that goes with that. Even though I have been watching John’s specials since high school, I watched them with more meaning and regulating once I was away at school. Whether it was because it reminded of my best friends in high school who also loved him, reminded me of home growing up in Catholic school, and just because I could always rely on the specials to put a smile on my face.
John’s point of view on life takes the hard parts on life and throws hilarious punchline on it just to make you laugh. That is really the whole idea of comedy. It doesn’t matter if it’s John Mulaney or the many other comedians, like his friend and coworker, Nick Kroll. When comedy is done well, it helps people like me who need a laugh after a long day of class, work, or just overall panic that seems to always come up these days. Watching John every week made me feel less alone, for some reason the way social media and other forms of entertainment can not.
Although in this second year, I am trying to be about looking to the future. So if you have gone through, New In Town, Comeback Kid, Kid Gorgeous, and even Oh Hello (because they are all available on Netflix), and John is not your cup of tea, let me introduce to you Julio Torres. In my eyes, he is the next John Mulaney. He is currently a writer at Saturday Night Live, and just released his first comedy special with HBO, My Favorite Shapes. Like John, he is niche, deadpan, and incredible smart, like compared a pearl to Timothee Chalamet. My sophomore year weekly watch, maybe on an on/off schedule between John Mulaney and Julio Torres.